French Island: Living off the grid just out of the city

Retired Melbourne couple Ken and Helen Brown haven’t paid house bills or rates in more than a year thanks to a seachange to a farm that’s only about 60 kilometres out of the city.

The pair have been living off-the-grid, and off the mainland, on their alpaca and cattle farm on French Island, just a 15-minute ferry ride from the Mornington Peninsula.

The island, which is home to about 116 permanent residents and another 100 part-time residents as well as a rich variety of wildlife, thanks to the French Island National Park, has no council and no power or water supply.

Though the couple camped on their 40 hectares of land for decades, making the move to the island that only has about 60 properties meant they had to build a farm house, in a place that has no electricity or road access.

“The biggest challenge was finding a way to build a nice home for a family to retire to on a place that had no infrastructure to do so,” says their son and architect Rowan Brown, from Lai Cheong Brown, who designed a prefabricated home for his parents that runs off solar power and relies on rainwater harvesting, wood heating and a worm farm sewage treatment system.

Brown says a prefabricated home was the most affordable and efficient way to go about the build and enabled 90 per cent of the work to be done off the island.

The five sections of the prefabricated home were transported to the island over three days. Photo: Supplied.

“From rough figures it looked like it was going to be a quarter of a million dollars extra to build there,” Brown says, adding that it would have been difficult to constantly ferry supplies and materials over and find builders willing to move to French Island to work in harsh, windy conditions.

“About three quarters [of builders we approached)] were just not interested, others saw it as a huge camping or fishing holiday … but the prefabricators jumped on straight away.”

The final outcome was a four-bedroom farmhouse built by Ecoliv that was made up of five sections that were ferried across to the island over three days in March last year.

Dr Ken Brown and his wife, Helen, believe they have the best of both worlds, as they can enjoy farm life on a quiet island that's not too far from the city. Photo: Supplied

Rough weather meant builders spent more than a month assembling the five sections – which were fully painted and fitted with joinery on the mainland – and finishing off the home, which Ken Brown, a former lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and Helen, a former library client services manager, moved into in May 2015.

The couple have loved the last 15 months they have spent living in the modern and functional farm house, which has an internal courtyard as opposed to a more traditional verandah, to offer protection from the wind.

“When [our friends] walk into the house, apart from the fact that’s it’s been designed to take in a very good view, they are amazed that anything that’s as striking as this has been able to be put up on the island,” Helen Brown says.

The property is also home to alpacas and cattle, which have to be ferried on and off the island. Photo: Jaime Diaz-Berrio

The pair, who are passionate about the island’s native vegetation and wildlife, have adjusted well to their off-the-grid lifestyle. While their days were once spent working in the bustling city, their hours are now occupied with farm duties, working with the local Landcare group, as well as tending to their own beehives and expanding garden – which they hope they can use as their sole source for vegetables in the future.

“At the moment we’ve only got solar power and we’re planning to add a wind generator,” Ken Brown says. “We have to manage our electricity consumption, particularly in mid-winter, because you do have limits on the amount of power available.”

“Water is also manageable, we have a pretty good collecting capacity. We had a dry summer this year but it didn’t cause an issue,” he said. “I like it here very much. It gives me a lot to do cause the property hasn’t had much done on it over the last 30 or 40 years. I’m retired but I don’t want to be growing mouldy in a corner.”

The farmhouse has a central courtyard that offers refuge from the wind. Photo: Jaime Diaz-Berrio

With only one small shop on the island, the couple make sure to stock up on groceries and supplies when they travel to the city for frequent commitments, which they say is easy due to ferry and train access.

Ken Brown says that while the isolation of the island isn’t for everyone, going off-grid is more affordable and achievable than in the past and could save you money in the long run.

“When you buy your solar power system you’re paying up front for 20 years of electricity. In that sense it’s not such a bad investment,” he says. Things like a solar power system now run 24/7 and don’t make any noise. A few years ago you would have had to run a diesel engine to survive in a house like this.”

Wood fires are used to heat the home and for a major proportion of the cooking. Photo: Jaime Diaz-Berrio

He adds that prefabricated, sustainable houses are a great idea for remote properties and farms, especially for properties that rely on single-wire earth return lines which he says are poorly maintained and blamed for starting bushfires.

He says prefabrication is often overlooked for everyday houses, as it is seen as a way of building cheap and nasty box houses or complex creative projects.

“What this house shows in a lot of ways is that middle path, how to utilise prefabrication to deliver architectural quality at reasonable prices.”

The total construction time of the home was eight months. Photo: Jaime Diaz-Berrio.

The home is 190 square metres and has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Photo: Jaime Diaz-Berrio.

The property has views of the coast and rolling farmland. Photo: Jaime Diaz-Berrio.